


my missing puzzle piece.

by paleromantic, tylerscreamingintothevoid



Series: AFTG Bingo - Aaron/Katelyn card [2]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: 60's AU, F/M, Fluff, Katelyn is a feminist and Aaron is trying his best, aftg bingo, political protest, they're in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-14 04:27:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16485911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paleromantic/pseuds/paleromantic, https://archiveofourown.org/users/tylerscreamingintothevoid/pseuds/tylerscreamingintothevoid
Summary: Aaron's first women's march!





	my missing puzzle piece.

The last bell of the day was still ringing as Katelyn got out through the doors of the school, her backpack slung lazily onto her shoulder. She had left her last class early to get changed into her new shirt, and she knew that Aaron would be waiting for her at the back of the school, his favourite place to smoke. It was only English Lit anyway, she had always been good at that.

He was alone when she got there, which meant that the rest of his friends had either gone home already or actually gone to class for once, probably the former. Katelyn had no idea how they were actually passing their classes, or even if they were passing them at all.

She didn’t really care, though. Aaron was passing, that was all that mattered.

"Hey, Aar!" She smiled sweetly at him, waiting for him to bring the cigarette away from his mouth to kiss his cheek. "Ditched class?"

"Only to get here in time for you, babe," he said with a cocky grin. "What's going on?"

He gestured to her shirt, not in disgust, but confusion. It was bright pink and made of soft cotton, with a fuschia fist symbol emblazoned on it, much brighter than what Katelyn usually wore, at least when she was hanging around with Aaron.

She looked down at it and then grinned brighter, fiddling with the hem. "Remember that protest I was telling you about? It's on downtown tonight!"

Aaron didn't remember, as a matter of fact, but that didn’t mean that he would _tell_ her that. "The protest… Yeah, cool, can we skip it though? Just head back to mine, pass a joint around with the guys..."

Katelyn raised an eyebrow. "You want to skip the women's rights march?"

"The women's rights march?" Aaron blinked, and then a slight frown tugged at his lips.

"Aaron, you said you remembered!" She huffed and smacked his arm gently. "I _need_ you to come with me."

"You don't need me to come with you, babe." He lowered his hands to her hips, kissing her forehead. "It's not really my scene. You'll be fine, we can just meet up tomorrow. Yeah?"

She pulled away from him. "I can't walk home on my own, Aar. I need you there, no one else is going with me."

"Why can't you walk home on your own? You don't need to be a pussy about _everything_ , Kate."

Katelyn blinked, and then took a step back, clearly hurt. "I'm going to pretend you didn't say that."

"What's so scary, man? This town is safe as shit. It's not like you could get mugged." Aaron rolled his eyes and shrugged, reaching out to wrap an arm around her. She shrunk away from him, shaking her head.

"That's _you_ , Aar. Last time _I_ walked home alone, some drunk guy grabbed me and wouldn't leave me alone. I had to cry for help until someone came to get him off me." Her voice wobbled a little and she pressed her lips together, clearing her throat and crossing her arms. Aaron had upset her, it seemed.

Aaron threw the rest of his cigarette away and shook his head. He hadn't meant to say anything wrong, he just... "Kate, I'm sorry, alright? Why didn't you... why didn't you tell me about that?"

He had had no idea that anyone had grabbed her, he would have done something about it if he had. No one hurt his girl, and got away with it.

"I thought I was just being a pussy?" She shook her head and fixed up her bag straps, turning away from him slightly. She got angry at him sometimes, but this was a lot more brittle than that. Aaron had fucked up.

"No, if you'd explained to me..." Aaron rolled his eyes. "If you'd just talked to me about it I'd have understood.”

He hadn’t meant for it to come out as condescending as it had. He _hadn’t_ , but there was no coming back from it now.

"Why do you think these protests exist in the first place? Some things are too dangerous for girls to do, and it’s not _fair_." She scratched at her arm gently and then shook her head again.  "Stop being an asshole, Aaron."

"I'm not being an asshole, you're being preachy." He scoffed. "You can just tell me this shit and _educate_ me without having to talk to me like I'm stupid."

"Then stop _acting_ stupid." She sighed. "Maybe Andrew and Neil will go with me instead, since you think I'm too preachy. It's not like I could have died, or worse. Next time I’ll just let them grab me."

Aaron held her glare for only a few seconds before he gave in, reaching out and offering his hand. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Kate. I'd like to go, just... what's it about?"

She held up her semi-glare for a few more seconds than him before huffing and taking his hand. "The state still thinks that women should give up everything when we get married, it's ridiculous. There's a vote later this year, and we’re trying to rally people to vote for less… awful government officials.”

Aaron had never really been into politics, so he had had no idea about any of this. "You give up everything when you get married?"

She frowned at him. "Yes, Aar. We're not allowed to work, or do anything other than stay at home with our family. They just want us to cook, and clean, and have babies."

Aaron nodded slowly, looking disbelieving. "But that was like, a hundred years ago."

"That's right now, babe."

"But... that's so stupid." Aaron shook his head. “What kind of rule is that?”

Katelyn laughed, rolling her eyes and kissing his fingers. "That's the point of the march, sweetheart. So, you'll come with me, then?"

"Do I have to wear one of those gay-ass shirts?"

Katelyn winced. "Aar, c'mon we've talked about this."

Katelyn hadn't been pleased with how Aaron threw around the word gay, especially since Andrew and Nicky were around them so often, and she hadn't kept quiet about it. Luckily, Aaron had started to listen to her. She loved him, but he was just so _ignorant_ sometimes.

Aaron groaned. "Do I have to wear one of those _stupid_ shirts, then?"

She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "No, you don't. Now, was that so hard?"

Aaron shook his head. "No."

She seemed really happy, and tugged on his hand as she started walking. "You could sneak into mine tonight too, if you wanted? My parents will be busy, they’re working out of town."

"I'd rather sneak into your...-" He received a smack on the arm, and he rolled his eyes again. "Joking. I could just come pick you up for the protest if you'd like."

Katelyn hummed, and then smiled the way that she usually did when she was thinking about doing something either very stupid or totally awesome. "Or we could walk there _now_ , the path passes by the woods..."

Her voice had only a bare hint of suggestion, but it was more than enough for Aaron.

"That sounds nice," said Aaron with a crack in his voice. "Sounds nice. Yep."

She giggled, blowing him a kiss before turning and walking, pulling him after her.

She really was gonna be the death of him, one day.

Aaron didn't think he minded all that much.

****

Aaron didn't think that he'd seen so many people in one place before in his life, especially since it was mostly women. There were a few men of course, mostly boyfriends like him from what he could see. Still, it was pretty impressive, how many people they had gathered for the march.

Katelyn immediately got them both signs, offering one to Aaron to take. "Do you want to take part?"

The sign was cute, hand drawn in marker on poster-board. Aaron hadn't really protested anything before, had never really cared enough to, but Katelyn was using her best pouty face for this. He was weak, sue him.

"I... yeah, well, what else did I come here for." Aaron scanned the crowd for anyone he recognised, before grabbing the sign and proudly lifting it up.

Katelyn rolled her eyes and then grinned. "Not too girly for you, then?"

"Shut your mouth, Kate. It makes you happy, so..."

She went a faint pink, and then held up her sign, holding out her other hand for him to take. He held her hand, yelling out and repeating what she had scrawled across the sign he now held in his hand. It was kind of fun, when he thought about it. Katelyn seemed really happy too, which was a bonus. There were counter-protesters of course, but they gave up after a while. There were significantly less of them than the people who were taking part in the march, so they didn’t really have much of a choice.

It was sunny out, and they kept at it until the sun was starting to go away, the last remaining bits of sunlight making Katelyn's hair turn copper. People slowly started to pull out, trickling away until there were only a few, including them. More than a few people had complimented Aaron on his sign and the fact he had showed up at all. He had diverted most of the praise to Katelyn, who practically glowed from it.

Despite himself, he was pretty glad he had come to this stupid protest.

Aaron slipped his hand into Katelyn's back pocket, and kissed her on the forehead, finally lowering his sign. "I love you, Kate. Thanks for... thanks for inviting me to this dumb thing."

She yawned, and then nodded, moving closer to keep warm. "Thanks for coming... I was really worried that you wouldn't."

"Of course I would. I'm really glad you explained it to me, I hadn’t really thought about it, before." he mumbled.

"You are?" She beamed at him, looking proud of herself. Aaron felt himself grinning.

"Yeah, yeah, don't let it go to your head, sugar..."

"Me? _Never_." She pulled him down into a brief kiss. "I love you, Aaron."

He grinned and kissed her back. "Mmhm."

"Wanna go home?"

Aaron spun her around and then took her hand. “Absolutely, babe.”

They set off toward Katelyn’s house, and Aaron kept his arm firmly around Katelyn’s waist as they walked. He’d walk her home every day from now on if it would keep her safe, drinking and hanging out with the guys be damned.

Plus, it would give him more excuses to stay at her house, too. That would be nice.


End file.
